A Contemporary Effort
The first time I ever read J.
R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, as I have said, was in middle school. I had
already been introduced to the story in third grade of course, via a visit to a
high school play. Probably it was fading memories of this that prompted me to
give the book a try. Of course, I found the cover very eye-catching too,
whenever I was searching the shelves for a new read. The spine was thick enough
to feature the unusual title right-side up and was decorated with a picture all along it. I took the book down, checked it out, and started reading it
between class periods.
It
was a quantum leap for me. Although I had enjoyed fantasy and adventure before,
it had been on a fairly simplistic level. The protagonists of my reading had
been, for the most part, children like me. Perhaps the fact that Mr. Baggins,
while childlike, was not a child (and indeed no children as characters ever
appeared in the story) had something to do with its appeal. Tolkien’s style was
very rich, indeed, at times incantatory, and I found myself swept away by his
spell.
The
impact on me was immediate and compelling. Under the influence of The Hobbit,
I began to start drawing, or at least trying to draw, in earnest, seeking to
capture a vision. I began attempting to write poetry. Using the World Book
Encyclopedia, I learned to write the Futhark runes that adorned the cover and
the maps; this skill led to me meeting my one friend in middle school, Steve
Jones, who had an interest in codes and secret writing.
Not
only did I begin to read more widely (chasing that high), I started to desire
to get books for myself, real books, books unavailable at school. I bought The
Tolkien Reader. I pestered Mom until she finally sent off for The Guide
to Middle-Earth, an unprecedented mail-order occurrence in our family. Our
shared enthusiasm for Tolkien led Mr. Fleming (our drama teacher) to loan me the
Earthsea Trilogy, and soon I had to have a copy of those. I got Mike to get me The Lord of the Rings
trilogy from high school one year before I went.
But
always The Hobbit holds a special place in my heart. It is rather like
that path of pale white stones that Gandalf follows to lead Bilbo and the
Dwarves to Rivendell. Such a simple, juvenile thing, perhaps, but it’s taken me
on a road that goes ever on and on.
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